It looked like a mansion compared to our old house.

RecapĪmanda Benson’s first trip to her new house in the town of Dark Falls left much to be desired. He does a good job at emphasizing the foreboding darkness of Amanda’s new home and crafts a really exceptional nightmare sequence that for once isn’t used as a bait-and-switch chapter ending.Ĭliff-hanger chapter endings. Some reviewers have complained about the book’s pacing, which I’m willing to give Stine a break on since this IS the first book in the series. The story’s condensed to the town of Dark Falls and the Benson Family’s new house. Like I said in past recaps, before “One Day at Horrorland” many of the original books carried a sense of darkness and despair borderline alien to the entirety of the franchise, barring perhaps “Ghost Camp,” “Ghost Beach,” and “The Haunted School.” Stine’s mentioned if he ever gets a chance to rewrite this book he’d make it funnier, and I pray to God that never happens because trying to infuse his current humor into this story would be a sin against nature. You can find more of Claudia’s artwork here and you can download Zinebumps here Welcome to Dead House by Claudia Plescia – Posted with Claudia’s permission, this is a piece she submitted to the awesome free Goosebumps art zine, Zinebumps. Amanda’s for all intents and purposes a grounded protagonist in a way that can make her pretty relatable to readers who’ve been stuck in stressful familial situations. The actions of Amanda’s parents stem from the stress of moving into a new house, giving them an understandable reason why they aren’t willing to believe some of the odd things Amanda’s seen.

While Josh acts spoiled, it’s not to the degree he ruins his sister’s life because he can, and for once the parents do not try to encourage or ignore this behavior. Our main character and narrator, Amanda Benson, is a girl dealing with her bratty brother Josh and her parents not believing them about the weird shit going on in their new home.Īmanda’s plight is probably the most believable out of the myriad ways Stine reused these character dynamics in later books. Boy were they wrong! Īs the beginning of the franchise, “Welcome to Dead House” gives us a look at how Stine originally established many of the tropes he’s run into the ground over the last three decades, but before he exaggerated the shit out of them. Stine, commissioned back when Scholastic didn’t believe the series would sell enough. This is one recap I definitely have the energy for, because this is where it all began. But these new friends are not exactly what their parents had in mind. And the town of Dark Falls is pretty strange, too.īut their parents don’t believe them. “They’re Coming To Get You, Amanda!”Īmanda and Josh think they old house they have just moved into is weird. Title: Goosebumps #1 – “Welcome to Dead House” a.k.a. Welcome to Dead House Cover by Tim Jacobus

Welcome to dead house rl stine